I've lost track of how many times I've read this series in the past, but it's been a while. The book still holds up pretty well. I listened to it on aI've lost track of how many times I've read this series in the past, but it's been a while. The book still holds up pretty well. I listened to it on audio this time. I don't usually like a full cast, but it worked for this book....more

A cute sequel to "Geekerella", this one a retelling of "The Prince and the Pauper".

In this, a girl named Imogene, who is a massive fan of the movie/sA cute sequel to "Geekerella", this one a retelling of "The Prince and the Pauper".

In this, a girl named Imogene, who is a massive fan of the movie/show Starfield, is mistaken for one of the lead actors, Jessica Stone, and briefly fills in for her on a panel while they're both attending a fan convention. Jessica, it turns out, is not a fan of the movie herself, and actively hates it because it brought her the wrong kind of fame (internet trolls attacking her betrayal of the Princess Amara). Her character had died in the movie, and she's content to leave that part of her career in the past, while on the other hand Imogene had been the leader of a movement to revive the Amara character in the sequel.

When a script to the sequel gets leaked online, Jessica convinces Imogene to take her place during interviews and photos for a while so that she can secretly hunt down the person leaking the script. Annnddd....that's the gist of the plot.

This is definitely a book for geeks. There are so many references to geek culture and little nods to other real-life fandoms that I wonder how well this book will age. In twenty years, will people still get the references and the lingo?

I enjoyed this story, but I think there are some areas that needed work. The cast of side characters felt barely fleshed out. Imogene feels far less developed out than Jessica. Imogene didn't really seem to have a conflict or character growth aside from a predictable hate-to-love interest. Jessica had all of the conflict: she's the one dealing with the onlined harassment and the backlash from the toxic side of geek culture. She's the one who thinks the whole movie is stupid to begin with and doesn't "get" the fandom or why people love dressing up for conventions. She has development as she gradually comes to realize what the fandom and her movie character in particular means to so many people.

Despite some flaws, it's worth a read and certainly entertaining....more

A scrumptious conclusion to this wonderful trilogy. What can I say that hasn't already been said? It's beautifully written without relying on purple pA scrumptious conclusion to this wonderful trilogy. What can I say that hasn't already been said? It's beautifully written without relying on purple prose, fantastically rich and detailed without infodumping, and the main character is totally badass and amazing without being a Mary Sue. It's gorgeous, and lovely, and eerie, and tragic, and whimsical, and gave me goosebumps for at least thirty percent of the time.

As always with books I LIKED, I have a hard time organizing my feelings....so here are just some random thoughts:

I'm really glad I went back and reread books 1&2 before starting this (it had been a year or so since reading those), so that I could be more fully immersed in the story by the time I started this one. So many details and characters and names that I know I wouldn't have remembered, and I was right.

The beginning of this book kind of reminded me a little bit of Meredith Ann Pierce's "Darkangel" trilogy for some reason. Maybe it's the whole "female protagonist wandering across an ethereal landscape and meeting almost-nonsensical characters who help guide her, all while kinda being in love with a scary immortal guy" thing. I don't know....I couldn't put my finger on it but I was getting faint Darkangel vibes. Not a bad thing at all, since I think that trilogy is classic and helped shape my love for girl power fantasy.

Don't start this book while reading in a public place because there's a heart wrenching tragedy very early on that made me want to bawl my eyes out, but I was sitting in a lobby while reading it, so I had to do that strained not-blinking face to prevent myself from crying. However, (view spoiler)[ this tragedy gets fixed near the end, (hide spoiler)] which I read in the privacy of my own home so I could let the tears flow.

I learned a lot about Russian culture/history/mythology from this trilogy. I was frequently pausing to google/wiki some term or other to see if it meant what I thought I did. Yes, historic Russian homes did have a giant oven that everyone slept on top of to keep warm. Yes, bathhouses were/are an important culture, and getting lashed with branches after steaming was/is totally a thing. Little things like that were fascinating, and showed (I think) that the author really did her research and/or has a lot of knowledge about medieval Russian culture. I can't help but compare this trilogy to the book "Hunted" by Megan Spooner which I'd also read recent and which also allegedly took place in medieval Russia, but was clearly not researched nearly as well, if at all. Blue shag carpeting and loveseats? Pffffff.....

Speaking of terminology, I'm going to have to reread this whole thing on audio at some point so that I can learn how to properly-ish pronounce all of the names. Right now, I can only make vague, probably offensively-stereotypical attempts based on what I think Russian sounds like.

I guess my final thoughts for this trilogy is HOLY HELL, HOW IS THIS A DEBUT AUTHOR??? There are so many highly published fantasy authors who churn out book after book while still wallowing in purple prose and Mary Sues and info dumping and creepy/abusive love stories and badly-written first-person/present-tense..........and then Katherine Arden shows up and is like, "Hold my mead" and writes this GORGEOUS FAIRY TALE WONDER LAND as a goddamn debut author. Like......WTF? I will forever be intimidated from attempting to write my own fantasy novel because as much as I'd want it to come out like Katherine Arden's book, it'll assuredly come out like a Stephanie Meyer book instead and then I'll just die of shame. Tragic. Maybe I had a brilliant story idea but NO ONE WILL EVER READ IT NOW because I don't want to take that risk.

Read this trilogy. It is amazing, and Katherine Arden has catapulted her way to my list of authors whose books I buy brand new, unread, and on the release date....more

4 stars. I didn't love this QUITE as much as Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom, but it was much better than the Shadow & Bone trilogy.

In some ways, thi4 stars. I didn't love this QUITE as much as Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom, but it was much better than the Shadow & Bone trilogy.

In some ways, this felt a little bit like Bardugo decided to take another stab at the original trilogy. She's grown a lot as a writer since then, but what's published is published.....This book gave her a chance to revisit Ravka and the best parts of the original trilogy, to show off her new writing skills in the place where they first started.

Because of that, this book would be tricky for someone new to the world to read, or for someone who's only read the SoC/CK duology. It's much more a sequel to the S&B trilogy than to the duology. I'd recommend reading BOTH the trilogy and the duology before reading this, even though I know the trilogy isn't the greatest.

I was excited to see Nina's reappearance, and to have a large part of the plot focus around her side story. I thought Zoya's character growth was interesting, though I have to admit I was a little disappointed by Nikolai. He was the most interesting character from the original trilogy, and I was hoping to see more of his swashbuckling, snarky, charming self. Alas, he was pretty defeated feeling for most of this book, as he wrestled with the literal dark monster lurking within himself. We get a few glimpses of the true Nikolai, but this book is definitely more about him struggling than about him being badass. Oh well. There's the sequel to look forward to!

Overall, I enjoyed this book...but I wasn't in love with it. It was about 100 pages too long, so portions of it felt slow and too much like flashbacks to the S&B trilogy. I felt a bit like I gulped it down because I was so excited to read it. I think I'll like it even more upon re-reads when I'm able to slow down and savor it a bit more. I think also re-reading the earlier books immediately before beginning this one would have helped because there are so many characters and moving parts....more

2018 reread: Phew! I pretty much had painfully tingly goosebumps for like the last four chapters of this book. I can see this being one of those trilo2018 reread: Phew! I pretty much had painfully tingly goosebumps for like the last four chapters of this book. I can see this being one of those trilogies that gets better and better with each reread.

2017: Another great installment in this magical trilogy. Aside from the whimsical Russian fairy tale feel of this female-centric fantasy, I love this author's writing. It's a great example of how you can have lovely writing with beautiful descriptions without abusing a thesaurus or giving every detail about every article of clothing that your main character wears. There were constantly little moments where I thought, "Ah, now that's a perfect, vivid way to describe that thing with just a word."

Here's one sentence that caught my reading ear, describing a woman in despair after her village is burned. "Her hands curled into each other like dead leaves, and her body slumped, though she was not weeping." The visual of her hands described in that way is a simple yet effective way to convey both her physical and her emotional state at that moment. There are no fancy words in that sentence, but it gives us so much. And it fits for the scene. Nothing drives me crazy like a metaphor that doesn't fit the context. Dead leaves are a perfect fit for a moment of despair, but would not fit to describe a woman's hands during a joyous occasion.

I'll definitely be adding this trilogy to my personal collection....more

Originsl review: Interesting sequel to "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife". This takes place a hundred years after the first book, after the plague thatOriginsl review: Interesting sequel to "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife". This takes place a hundred years after the first book, after the plague that wiped out 90% of women. It was fascinating to see all of the different towns "cultures" that the author envisioned for the isolated communities that survived, and the way that those cultures treated the different genders. This book was filled with gender and sexuality issues, from our gender-fluid/transman Etta/Eddy to exploring polyamory to open and hidden homosexuality. (Somehow none of my reading challenges ask for an adult book with LGBTQ characters; this book would have checked off every box.)

So, I liked it. I think I preferred the first book, but this one gets an extra star for mentioning menstrual cups (honestly, how valuable would one of those be in a post-apocalyptic world?)....more

2019 reread: Ah, screw it. I'm bumping this up to 4.5 stars. Yeah, there's a teensy lag near the end as I noted in my original reading, but overall it2019 reread: Ah, screw it. I'm bumping this up to 4.5 stars. Yeah, there's a teensy lag near the end as I noted in my original reading, but overall it's such a beautifully written fairy tale that I can't NOT love it. Definitely worth re-reading books 1 and 2 before plunging into the newly released book 3. Can't wait!

2017: Overall, a very whimsical tale that felt very much like a classic Russian fairy tale. I really enjoyed the atmosphere created. The narrative did lag a little near the last third of the book for some reason, started to feel too much like a standard fantasy, which is why it's four and not five stars....more

2019 reread: Continuing my reread on audio, and unfortunately I really struggled with it. I wasn't getting long enough chunks of listening time, and t2019 reread: Continuing my reread on audio, and unfortunately I really struggled with it. I wasn't getting long enough chunks of listening time, and the plot is so packed with action, that I kept losing track of where I was in the story. Luckily, I've read this before so I had a vague outline of what was going on already. Even when I did get time to listen, something about the narrators didn't quite work for me. They did a fine job, but I'd find my mind wandering...maybe the pitch was too low or something? Anyway, this is still a great trilogy, but I can't recommend it on audio unless you have lots of long stretches for listening.

2017: Ahh, a good satisfying conclusion (I think) to this trilogy. It took me a little bit to get into it because it'd been such a time delay since reading the last one, and because I was only getting s few minutes to read each evening. I soon got back into the swing of things, because for like the first hundred pages, it was just solid action. You know how in Harry Potter, Mrs. Weasley has a clock showing where all of her family members are, and toward the end all of the hands just pointed to "moral peril"? That was basically the first big chunk of the book: mortal peril.

My only disappointment with this book was that there wasn't much travel. The entire thing pretty much took place in Red London. I would have like to see more of the various worlds, but oh well. Still an awesome series....more

2019 reread: Yup, I'd say this trilogy holds up well to rereads. My thoughts this time are pretty much the same as my original review.

2016: 4.75 star2019 reread: Yup, I'd say this trilogy holds up well to rereads. My thoughts this time are pretty much the same as my original review.

2016: 4.75 stars. Not QUITE as good as the first book, but still pretty awesome.

This one was a bit slower paced than the first book, which was pretty much action, twist, peril, more action, more twists, more peril throughout the whole book. This one was much less about imminent evil happening, more more just about character interaction. In this one, Red London is hosting a magical competition where champions from three countries within Red London's world compete in arenas to basically see who can battle better with magic. Kell, our world-hopping protagonist from the first book, enters the competition in disguise. It would be totally unfair of him to compete as himself, since he's one of the very few people who can manipulate all five elements of magic.....but he's also going antsy and bored since the adventures in the first book, so his brother/prince basically forces him to compete (secretly), with the caveat that he can't give himself away and he has to let himself lose eventually.

Meanwhile, Lira, who had walked away from Kell and London at the end of the last book, has joined a pirate crew. She's basically so awesome it's borderline tropish....but I love it. She's a thief (love!), she's clever, she tricks her way aboard this pirate ship, and she's beginning to realize that she can do magic now that she's in Red London and not Grey London (our world) where she grew up. So, naturally, as soon as she begins to gain some skill she finds out about this magical competition going on, and tricks her way into competing (disguised, of course) in the tournament.

So yeah, the book is mainly focused on the tournament, and on the interpersonal relationships of everyone. Kell and his brother, Prince Rhys, are magically linked so that whatever pain one feels, the other feels as well (see book 1). Lira's pirate ship captain, Alucard, is totally charming and sly, but he's obviously hiding something AND we find out that Kell hates his guts. Kell and Lira haven't seen each other since she swaggered away from him and out of the city four months earlier. Although their relationship hadn't (yet) gotten romantic, they're obviously on each others' minds a lot because of the stuff they went through together before.

Romance does come into play in this book more than the first one. There are three somewhat steamy make-out scenes before the book is halfway through, though not with whom we'd necessarily expect. Luckily, these didn't feel like they bogged down the story and there weren't any gratuitous sex scenes like the author was trying to scream, "This is an adult book!! Ooo, look how shocking it is!"

Meanwhile, in the background of all of these human interactions and tournament drama, we get glimpses of dark trouble brewing in White London. That city/world was previously getting drained of magic, and things were always a bit grim....but suddenly color is seeping back into the world, and green things are growing. There's a new ruler back in town, and things seem to be pretty dandy. Or is it? Evil magic is at work, and it build and builds quietly in the background of this book until the cliffhanger finale, setting up for the already-planned sequel.

Will I be continuing with this series as new books come out? YES. The author has stated that this will be a trilogy or MAYBE a quadrilogy, which is good. I don't like never-ending or very long series. So although this book wasn't quite as edge-of-your-seat exciting as the first one, I still enjoyed it a lot more than most other fantasy that I've read lately....more

2018 re-read: Decided to listen to this on audio. It was still fantastic, but I don't recommend the audio. The narrator made Lila sound nasal and whin2018 re-read: Decided to listen to this on audio. It was still fantastic, but I don't recommend the audio. The narrator made Lila sound nasal and whiney, and all of the characters from White London all had a kind of German accent that made them seem silly rather than menacing.

2016: Heck yes, that is a five star rating right there! I know, those basically never happen for me unless it's a re-read of a favorite or a book by an author that I already love. So....five stars for a new book from a new author for me....that's a pretty big deal.

Now, I recognize that part of the reason I loved this book so much is that I've had a lull in fantasy books lately, with everything I've picked up turning out to be lackluster or just plain awful (I'm looking at you, Paper Magician), so to get one that I really LIKED was very very exciting. Part of my high rating is from that. That's fine. I will unabashedly relish the new book love anyway.

Ok, so, why did I love this one? This book was my kind of fantasy: there's magic and alternate worlds BUT the author didn't inundate us with overly cool sounding character names or a zillion made up place names. She was able to create this fantasy world without bogging down the action with confusing names (have I ever mentioned how much I hate confusing names?). There were no excessive descriptions of the characters' looks, there were no predictable insta-love-despite-initially-hating-each-other matches between protagonists based on the aforementioned characters' looks. There were no chunks of plot-halting info-dumps......I mean, what's not to like?

Ok, so we've got our protagonist, Kell, who comes from an alternative London. He's one of the tiny number of people who's able to travel between worlds, of which there are apparently four, the Londons in each all laid on top of one another. He regularly travels between magic-hungry and blood-thirsty White London, his own prosperous and magical Red London, and our dreary unmagical Grey London. There also exists Black London, but no one goes there anymore because it is some serious bad news, being corrupted and possibly dead or consumed by evil magic. Anyway, Kell is minding his own business, smuggling trinkets back and forth between Londons for his own amusement while he also delivers messages between the monarchs of each London. Then, someone tricks him into taking an object into Grey London that does NOT belong there, and basically turns out to be a horrible evil black (literally black) magical object with a mind of its own. He's got to figure out how to fix this problem when...

Along comes Lila, a street urchin pick pocket (Squeee! I do love me some thieves!) from Grey London who dreams of being a pirate with her own ship. She comes heavily armed, and basically doesn't take shit from anyone. Be still my beating heart! A feisty female character, and a thief no less! Huzzah! Did someone write this book just for me?

Anyhow, the two of them meet up, get caught in this bad black magic business, and end up joining forces to figure how to fix things. And astonishingly, no smoldering glances were thrown, no ugh-I-hate-him-even-though-he's-so-hawt moments, and no love triangle was struck even though Lila is a teen! What? A badass female character and a badass male character can get together for grand adventures, and they just get down to the problem at hand without sparks of lust flying between them? Oh man, it's like they're just friends or co-conspirators against evil or something. Amazing. Ok, so maybe if some romance got kindled eventually that would be fine because (and here's the key) they've gotten to know each other now. The important thing was that the author somehow avoided those typical predicable cliches, and I could just hug her for it. Platonically, of course.

Oh, also the pacing in this novel was fantastic. It's not like it was one endless fight scene, but it was definitely fast paced and with enough twists and cliff hangers to keep you pulled along. This was one of those books that I thought about all day while I was at work and couldn't wait to get back to.

Of course, this wouldn't be a good review if I didn't mention the few objection that I did have. Because there was SO much fast action, it felt like we didn't get to know the main characters quite as much as I would have liked. They felt a smidgen trope-ish because of this, but that's fine....sometimes tropes exist because they work. Anyway, this was a minor flaw, and I assume we'll learn more about their histories in the sequel. I also felt like I wasn't entirely sure about the motivations behind the villains except that they were villainous for the sake of villainy. Not the worst thing, so I shan't detract stars for it.

A quick side story in the His Dark Materials universe, focused on a young Lee Scoresby and his first encounter with Iorek Byrnison. Interesting, but IA quick side story in the His Dark Materials universe, focused on a young Lee Scoresby and his first encounter with Iorek Byrnison. Interesting, but I don't think it needed to be its own book....more

Do members of the target age bracket for this series even appreciate how great it is? It's so fun and magical without being over the top. DWJ's narratDo members of the target age bracket for this series even appreciate how great it is? It's so fun and magical without being over the top. DWJ's narrative "voice" can't be beat, the way everything seems like it's told with a barely suppressed grin without being obviously funny.

I don't know why it's taken me so long to read this final Chrestomanci book, except that it was published so much later than the others (which I first loved as a kid) so I guess I've had a hard time accepting it into the fold. I'm glad I've read it now because it was as delightful as ever. I'd call it a "hoot" except I recognize that this brief review already make me sound like an old kids-these-days fogey. So, I won't say that it was a hoot....(but it totally was.)...more

Yet another book in this series with serious timeline issues. Come on, Cameron Dokey! Get your act together.

This book is 204 pages long, and is a reteYet another book in this series with serious timeline issues. Come on, Cameron Dokey! Get your act together.

This book is 204 pages long, and is a retelling of Beauty & the Beast. We basically know the overall plot ahead of time, and presumably the author does to........so why does it take til page 143 for Belle to meet the Beast? That leaves just 60 pages for the WHOLE rest of the story to take place. As a result, the love story is entirely rushed, so they have to explain it all away with some hogwash the heart knowing what it sees, and lots of vague lovey dovey metaphorical stuff. Entirely unsatisfying.

I don't get it. It's like the author starts out meaning to write a 400 page book, but around the 120 mark she gets a memo from her publisher that it needs to be a 200 page book, so she rushes to finally introduce the main fairy tale part of the story and then has to wrap it up immediately. No effort made to go back and trim out fluff from earlier in the book to free up space later...like a 3 page mud fight, or long passages about Belle's woodcarving skills that ultimately have nothing to do with the plot, or the whole first three chapters (and intermittently throughout there rest of the book) being dedicated to Belle's insecurities about her looks not living up to her name and how much purtier her sisters are.

This is a consistent problem with these Once Upon a Time books, specifically the ones written by this author. Does she not have an estimate going in for how long the book is going to be?

What's more confusing is that the author is a decent writer. What's there seems well written and has nice descriptions, but the plotting is way off, both in the pacing and in the overall story. All of her books rely heavily on *love* to wrap up the narrative rather than a thought out story. I'll have to research...maybe this author was a romance novel ghost writer before, hence the writing skills but not the story telling skills.

Definitely skip this version of Beauty & the Beast. Nothing new here....more

Ooof, another not great book from this series. Luckily, it was only 170 pages long, so I could knock it off my list and get rid of it quickly.

This isOoof, another not great book from this series. Luckily, it was only 170 pages long, so I could knock it off my list and get rid of it quickly.

This is supposed to be a retelling of The Snow Queen. As with many of Dokey's other books in this series, the main focus was *love*...and that's about it. This one actually started out OK, with a whimsical feel and a storytelling voice. Then it went immediately downhill and stayed there.

The gist is that there was that a princess was touched by the North Wind as a baby, AND struck through the heart with a frozen shard of the mirror that her late mother was obsessed with, which apparently meant that she was a Snow Child. And when she turned 16, she would have to leave her snowy palace and travel the world, mending hearts. Eventually she'd mend enough hearts to mend her own heart. Then hers would be the most beautiful hearts of all the hearts.

Ok....at this point I wanted to hold up a finger and say, "Ok, but why...." but then the story switched to a different POV, of a girl, Grace, who grew up hearing the story of the Snow Child, alongside her childhood friend Kai. He's continuously interrupt the story to say, "But..." until finally Grace scolded him for this and said, "Can't you just close your eyes and enjoy the story?" I felt personally chided, and was thus determined to hunker down and just try to enjoy the story.

But.....I still had so many questions. The main question is where and when is this story supposed to take place??? We are given zero solid indications of the setting. I THINK Denmark-ish, because The Snow Queen is a Hans Christian Anderson tale...but if you didn't already know that, your only hint would be some Danish-sounding names. Except...not all of the names were Danish, so that was just confusing. The Snow Child's given name was Deidre, which I think is Irish? As for the TIME....I guess in a vaguely fairy tale time? Women wear skirts and take in sewing, but Grace and Kai live in a city that's big/modern enough to have multi-story buildings with flat roofs. And it's modern enough that Kai works as a clockmaker's apprentice, repairing clocks and watches.....so no earlier than the 17th century or so, when the term "watch" began to refer to small clocks worn in pockets. Sooooo....not medieval? Those are the only hints at the time period for this story, but I suspect that the author didn't research the history of clocks to determine a setting. I think she was just like, "Ehhh....vaguely Danish, sometime after the Medieval period. Good enough!"

The story itself was pretty weak. Kai proposes to Grace, because they've been best friends since childhood. She's like, "I don't know....I want to see the world, and if I marry you I'll be trapped!" He's like, "Well, that's rude and my feelings are hurt from being friend-zoned. Oh, hey, the actual Snow Child just showed up at my house cuz of my achey breaky heart, and so I'm going to leave and travel the world with her!" Grace is like, "Oh no! My best friend has left! I must pack a bag and try to follow him!"

And then I'M like, "Y'all are a bunch of idiots."

Ugh, this book was just painful. Any time I could see a lot of dialogue on the page, I skimmed it because it was just going to be people talking about love and frozen hearts and stuff. I mean, this book is only 170 pages, so if LESS time had been spent talking about *feelings* and more time developing the setting/plot, it would have been significantly better. The Snow Child literally spends seven pages saying goodbye to her dad, the king, when she leaves to travel the world. That's like...4% of the whole book. The whimsical promise of the first couple of chapters was completely squashed when we have to spend so much time listening to the Snow Child's inner thoughts. Combine that with the fact that her POV and Grave's POV sound exactly the same, and it's just hot mess. Or...a cold mess, because she's the Snow Child?

After wandering the world for decades (but not aging), mending hearts and taking names (literally), the Snow Child steals Hai and makes a beeline back to her own home, even though her heart still isn't mended (she is super bad at quests). She's been away so long that the old king has died, and there's just one member of the old court who's lived to such a crotchety old age that he gets to see her return. Then, she ascends to the roll of queen, just like that. Seriously? She's been gone for decades, comes back still looking like a teenager, and there hasn't been anyone else who's tried to usurp the throne in all that time? The people just roll with it, and she's queen.

And again I'm like, "Y'all are a bunch of idiots too!"

Naturally there's a happily ever after with the three main idiots and everyone's hearts are mended. The Snow Child becomes the Snow Queen, but then her heart gets mended and she thaws out....so I guess she's the Queen of Hearts now? Boy, that would have been a way more interesting ending. Instead, (view spoiler)[ she and Kai end up together and Grace married a FREAKING BIRD who randomly turns out to be an enchanted prince. Like, earlier in the book she didn't want to marry her BEST FRIEND lest she feel pinned down, but now she'll marry a goddamn bird prince after seeing him in human form for like thirty seconds. (hide spoiler)] How the hell does that make sense??

I think I only have...two or three more books in this series that I haven't yet read. At this point, I'm just reading them because I own them (though pretty much getting rid of them one by one as I read them and realize how shallow they are) and because I'll always feel a little discontented if I came this far but didn't complete the series, especially when they're so short. If you don't have any of those preconceived hang-ups about this series, I'd skip it in favor of more substantial retellings....more

FINALLY, one of these Once Upon a Time books that wasn't terrible. I knew there were some in the series that were decent.

This one was interesting becaFINALLY, one of these Once Upon a Time books that wasn't terrible. I knew there were some in the series that were decent.

This one was interesting because it's not really a fairy tale retelling. The story of Anastasia isn't a fairy tale....it's fairly recent history. This book was published 2 years after DNA evidence confirmed that the graves of the missing Romanovs had been found, so this book wasn't even the author's whimsical speculation on the legends surrounding Anastasia's supposed survival. I'm going to still shelve it under "retold tales", but really it's more like "alternative history". There were also no fantasy elements, just straight historical fiction.

What set this apart from many of the other books in this series is that it wasn't overly mushy. Sure, there was some insta-love and families coming tearfully together....but it wasn't nearly on the same level as some of the books written by Cameron Dokey where the plots resolve all in a rush with the solution to every problem being "love". There weren't soppy goodbye scenes that lasted half a dozen pages, like the last book in this series that I read. It was a relief to not roll my eyes every other page as I read.

That's not to say that this book was great. Like all of these, it suffers for being too short. Relationships had to form swiftly, travel and other chunks of time had to be skimmed over, and the conflicts wrapped up too quickly and easily. The setting was just barely developed; we know the place and the time period because we know it's right after the Romanov assassinations, but there wasn't a lot of detail that really made this *feel* like early 20th century Russia. You could tell the author had done research into the events (at least read the Wikipedia page), but the short length of the book prevented more historic detail. Two of the main fictional characters had painfully stereotypical Russian names (Ivan and Sergei), but there wasn't much else to show that the author had studied up on the language or culture outside of the immediately historical facts surrounding Anastasia's death. Interestingly, we don't see Russian in the text anywhere, but French is used a few times.

So, I won't be keeping this one for my collection of retold fairy tales, but I still feel like it's worth a read for anyone interested in a brief overview of the Anastasia story....more

2.5 stars. Not the worrst of Cameron Dokey's "Once Upon a Time" books but definitely one of the more watered down tales. The writing was fine, but the2.5 stars. Not the worrst of Cameron Dokey's "Once Upon a Time" books but definitely one of the more watered down tales. The writing was fine, but the main problem for the books in this series is that they're only about 200 pages long. Now, you absolutely can write a compelling book that's that short....but write it for the right audience. For middle readers, or a smaller overall story, 200 pages is ample. For a YA book that's a retelling of the BALLAD of Mulan, 200 pages is not enough.

In the original ballad, Mulan leaves home disguised as a boy to join the Chinese army. She fights with the army for TWELVE years and is honored as a famed warrior. In this book, she doesn't leave home until about halfway through the book....so you know the actual warrior aspect is going to be a bit rushed. Indeed, twelve years of warfare is retold as some brief target practice at the army's encampment, and then during the actual fighting she fires literally ONE arrow and then saves the day and everyone thinks she's amazing. When she gets found out as a girl (which really should have been a huge deal) everyone is just like, "Cool beans. Now, how can we reward you?" It goes without saying that in such a tiny window, Mulan and the prince fall in luuuurve and have to get married at the end to live happily ever after. It's all highly unsatisfying, and has the Dokey stamp of way too much mushy love talk and not enough plot. The characters are barely developed, and Milan is a total Mary Sue who has everything happen too easily for her.

At this point, I'm just reading these Once Upon a Time books because I already own them, and I want to make sure there aren't any more good ones before I give them away. Otherwise, I would not bother reading these. I do now want to watch Disney's "Mulan", which I've never seen, because I suspect that even Disney has done more justice to her ballad than this book did....more

2019 update: DNF at page 140. I can't seem to sink into this book right now. Definitely feel like "it's not you, it's me". In five days I only read 142019 update: DNF at page 140. I can't seem to sink into this book right now. Definitely feel like "it's not you, it's me". In five days I only read 140 pages? That's not good. I picked this up to read again after finishing Katherine Arden's Russian folklore trilogy, so maybe that's tainted my reading palette for a while. That one had more of an adventure, while this one is more......wordy. I love Valente's whimsical style, but this week it just made me feel impatient and I found myself skimming. I'm sure I'll return to this again someday for another go, because it feels like I SHOULD love it.

2013: I really, really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. When I first started reading it, I didn't "get" it...Why all the flowery language? Purple prose much? But then something clicked and I realized it was a retelling (I picked it up because of the author without reading the back cover) of Russian fairy tales. Then the luxurious metaphors and descriptions dripping with magic made sense, as did some of the repetitive language. It's every Russian fairy tale mixed in with 1940's Communist Russia. Perfect! I love fairy tales!

I may put this on my wishlist to add to my fairy tale collection shelf...and will probably try to reread it. I get the feeling that it's a book best savored a second time. For whatever reason, I didn't LOVE it the first time around. I felt like the author only skimmed the surfaces of the characters (and this may have been intentional, since it became clear that the characters were, in a way, acting our their pre-destined fairy tale roles), so I never really felt attached. I wasn't digging the romance, since I never really relate to BDSM stuff. Someone who IS turned on by whippings and being submissive might find this more appealing in that regard.

So...the writing was very glorious in fairy tale fashion and worth a read....But it wasn't my favorite, and the plot felt a little long and slightly dragging toward the end.

For Russian fairy tale retellings, I much preferred "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card. For general fairy-tale-esque books about a girl being stolen by a cold immortal dude with a castle, I preferred "The Darkangel" by Meredith Ann Pierce....more

Disappointing. This is one of the books that's been on my TBR the longest without getting weeded off. I owned a physical copy, which I bought becauseDisappointing. This is one of the books that's been on my TBR the longest without getting weeded off. I owned a physical copy, which I bought because I already had books 2 & 3 in my collection....so I definitely still wanted to read it. Finally, I got around to read this one.

And....it was dull. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but it took me 4 days to get halfway through it. The main character seemed airheaded and bland, and her inevitable romance was equally colorless. I just didn't care about any of it. Very disappointing because I LOVE Robin Hood stories, so I should have been swooning all over the place. The whole book felt repetitive and drawn out, and it felt like a rehashing of Book 1. *yawn* Maybe if I'd re-read the first two books immediately before reading this one I could have had some fun seeing old characters making their reappearances.....but as a standalone this books definitely lacks.

I actually skimmed the last 100 pages or so. I only finished it because I didn't want another DNF already this year. I definitely don't want to KEEP this book for my own library, but it stresses me to have an incomplete trilogy on my shelf, so I may get rid of the first two books as well. I feel like they were merely "good not great" anyway....more

2019 reread: I'm not sure what happened between the seven years ago when I first read this book and now, but I just could NOT get into it this time. M2019 reread: I'm not sure what happened between the seven years ago when I first read this book and now, but I just could NOT get into it this time. Maybe I read this before during a particularly patient time of my life? I forgot how boring the beginning is! I forgot how lame the method of time travel was! I forgot how sexist the 70's still were!....I meant to reread this and then read the sequel for the first time, but I think I'm content now to say goodbye to both.

2012: Lovely. That's really the best way to describe this time-travel book. It's not particularly profound or adventurous....it's more like a stroll in the park....more

What a delightfully weird little book! I read this a BUNCH of times as a teen, but haven't revisited in at least a decade. Happy to say that I still lWhat a delightfully weird little book! I read this a BUNCH of times as a teen, but haven't revisited in at least a decade. Happy to say that I still loved it, with some caveats. The first few chapters were a solid 5 stars for me, and I even laughed out loud in the first chapter at an awkward moment (I don't remember it being a funny book), but I think the end of the book was just three stars. So, four stars when averaged. The book is written from Anna's POV, and her serious old-fashioned yet witty voice is what carries the story the most for me. This is NOT a realistic book, but more like a weird fable, so don't go into it with rigid logic because it'll just confound you.

The gist is that the main character, Anna, is extremely shy and agoraphobic, to the point where she LITERALLY blends into the background. Her family (mom and two sisters) have a hard time even seeing her. Despite this, she's an incredibly precocious child who taught herself to sew and use tools at a very young age. (At this point, I have to compare her a little bit to Roald Dahl's Matilda on the unbelievably genius level.) The visual of this seven year old girl cutting up a whole stack of plywood on a table saw just to annoy her family is hilarious to me somehow. I've labeled this book as "magical realism" not because there's actual magic, but just because the whole book has an air of suspended disbelief. That Anna is so small and slight that she can (at one point) be mistaken for a doll and fit inside a large handbag is totally fantastical, though it's never presented that way. It's whimsical in a child's fantasy way that this family lives in this rambling old Victorian house, and their father HAPPENED to fill it with tons of building supplies and tools before he vanished, and the previous owner just HAPPENED to have owned a fabric store and filled the attic full of bolts of cloth before she left.

Both of these happy, unlikely sources of supplies benefit Anna well, when she retreats from the outside world into the house. After being threatened with going to school, she decided to wall herself off (literally) from the rest of the world, and begins building secret passages throughout the house, where she then hides. She's the original dweller of "the cupboard under the stairs", as this book was published about 6 months prior to Harry Potter. She spends so much time hidden away, that over the years her family begins to think that they imagined her existence. She becomes almost like a house brownie who cooks, cleans, sews, and repairs the house without ever being seen. So....there's no magic, but it's, again, kind of like a child's secret fantasy.

THIS whole concept always charmed me when I was younger, and it still does. Secret passages hidden throughout a big old house? YES PLEASE? I too was very shy when I was young, so obviously I could relate to Anna's plight. I'm sure the book is a metaphor for social anxiety, but when I read it it was just a fun story.

The book changes tack about halfway through, when Anna begins to go through puberty whilst hidden within the walls of the house. By this point, no one in her family has seen her for years, so she goes through the experience alone, only figuring out what's going on by observing her sisters and their friends. The rest of the book is Anna dealing with the shame she feels for her changing body, all of those confusing inner emotions, then the delirious intensity of a first crush, and eventually how she learns to come out of hiding. Again, I'm sure this is all a metaphor for regular adolescent social anxiety, amplified and whimsified for the story....but I still like it just as a story.

As I said above, the first part of the story is my favorite bit. The secret passage business appeals to my introvert self SO MUCH that this book is basically like a reader-insertion fantasy. The second part of the book is good, but it strikes a little too close to the uncomfortable parts of adolescence so I enjoyed it less. It becomes less whimsy, and more like a regular teen book, though still a weird teen book. The book is also only about 200 pages long, and I kind of wish it had been longer so that Anna's metamorphosis (oh, the lepidoptera symbolism is strong in this book) could have had more time to flow more naturally. Her illogical intensity toward her first crush is frustrating as an adult reading it ("This will NOT lead to a healthy relationship!"), but is also TOTALLY how a fourteen year old sees things, and she is the one narrating. If the book had been longer, perhaps all of Anna's new-found interpersonal relationships could have been explored a little better, but as it was the end of the book feels very rushed.

So, overall....I'm not sure who I'd recommend this book to. It's a strange one, but I know many other people have found it charming as well....more

Classic YA post-apocalyptic fiction! I've read this so, so, so many times when I was younger, but it's been probably a decade or so since I last pickeClassic YA post-apocalyptic fiction! I've read this so, so, so many times when I was younger, but it's been probably a decade or so since I last picked it up. And it was, dare I say, even better than I remembered? And still so very relevant even though it was published 45 years ago.

The gist, if you somehow have never read this, is that a fifteen-year-old farmgirl named Ann is alone in a sheltered valley after some kind of nuclear warfare that wiped out all of civilization (as far as she knows). Her family left the valley to go seek others, and never returned. By some freak of weather, her valley has remained untouched by the drifts of radiation that have killed off all other life. She's surviving on her family farm, when suddenly a stranger walks into her valley wearing a radiation-proof suit. She initially hides from him, but after he swims in a radioactive stream (mistaking it for safe water), she nurses him (Mr. Loomis) back to health and it looks like they're possibly the only two people left alive.

One thing that struck me on this go around is that I'm now older than Mr. Loomis in this story. I was probably about ten when this book was first read to me, so when he was described as aged 30-32, this was unimaginably ancient to me, so I visualized him as a middle-aged, heavy-set man (the heavy set part is probably from the illustration of the radiation suit on the cover). This impression has somehow never changed for me, no matter how many times I've read this in later years. When I thought about reading this book now, I imagined Mr. Loomis as probably in his 50s....as if he's aged along with me. So, this time around when I actually read the book, and I got to the age description, I was flabbergasted. Wait, he's only in his early 30s? I'M in my early 30s! And he's probably not chubby at all, since he's been walking for an entire year, hauling a cart, and eating rations. He's a fit young dude my own age! Whhhhaaattttt???

That mind blowing revelation was soon replaced by even fiercer emotions toward the end of the book. Even though this was written in the 1970s, during a time when sexism was still even more prevalent than today, Robert C. O'Brien just GETS IT. I realized that all of his books feature female protagonists, and his most famous ones (this book and "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH") both feature female protagonists that are particularly strong, resourceful, and brave....and they don't even lose their heads over some silly love triangle. Imagine! I think Mr. O'Brien needs to be brought back from the dead to write some more teen fiction. Did I mention yet that he GETS IT??

What brought this all home, of course, is the climax of this novel and how much more intense it felt to me now, reading it as an adult. I, of course, remember the scene that spurred the drastic change in tone from the beginning of the book to the later part, (view spoiler)[ when Mr. Loomis makes advances on Ann, attempts to rape her, and then tries to hunt her down after she flees into the woods.... (hide spoiler)] but somehow it just HIT me so much harder this time around.

Prepare for rant....

It was this part in particular that triggered me: (view spoiler)[ Ann has been hiding in the woods after the rape attempt, when she decides that she'll compromise with Mr. Loomis (because he is still, after all, the only other person left alive that she knows of) and do all of the farming, chores, food gathering, etc, but just not live in the (HER!) house with him anymore. When she proposes this to him, he thinks for a minutes. "'I have no choice. I can only hope you will change your mind,' he paused, 'and act like an adult and less like a schoolgirl.'"

ARRRGGGGHHH!!!!! When I read this part my hands literally started shaking and I felt my body flush hot with burning rage. Holy fuck. How DARE he?? Does that not just sum up rape culture in one paragraph or what??? You try to fucking rape a woman, and then tell her that she's acting like a "schoolgirl" for not submitting to it?? And that pause right before he says it...how patronizing!

Listen, asshole, this is HER family farm, and HER house, and SHE has been caring for the livestock and tending the gardens and stockpiling firewood, and then YOU arrive. She nurses you back to health for fucking WEEKS, reading aloud to you, bathing you, spoon feeding you, trickling water into your mouth so you don't die, and playing the piano to sooth your feverish state. Meanwhile, she's been making plans on how to keep the farm going after supplies run out and even figures out how to disassemble and then install a wood cookstove so that she can bake herself a goddamn 16th birthday cake. This girl has ambitions, and plans, and DREAMS, and is happy to share all of that with you.

But it's not good enough for you, Mr. Loomis. Oh no. You also want to fuck her. Oh, I'm sure you'd try to justify it with "continuing the human species", but I call bullshit on that. You're a scientist, and you KNOW that taking a lengthy swim in some radioactive water probably did not do any favors to your sperm. Nope, don't use that excuse, you disgusting asshole.

When this young woman, who saved your life, refuses to let you rape her, you try to capture and enslave her. She's forced to choose between submission, killing you, or leaving her home her safe haven. She sticks to her moral convictions and spares your life, and instead she leaves behind all that she's worked so hard for, setting off into the unknown, radioactive, dead world in the slim hope that she can find a new life somewhere else. I mean, good for her, because if I were her I probably would have just shot you, dumped your body in the radioactive river, and resumed owning the shit out of this post-apocalyptic survival thing.

*smashes things*

Oh, Robert C. O'Brien, you sure now how to piss off us women.... I don't mean that RCO'B is a misogynist himself, not at all. I think he sees (I'm saying this in the present tense even though he's long passed away) just how much shit women have to deal with, and wrote it into this story. It's a perfect allegory. A self-sufficient woman is doing just fine, thank you very much, when a know-it-all man shows up, decides to take over HER house, and she better not dare friend-zone him or else he'll say she's acting like a "schoolgirl" for refusing his sexual advances? And then he shoots her in the leg and tries to starve her into submission? Yup, Mr. O'Brien, I think you have managed to write a book that perfectly encapsulates the "incel" mindset, forty years before the #MeToo movement. (hide spoiler)]

And can we talk about Ann's simple response to the aforementioned comment from Mr. Loomis? "I will not change my mind." Simple. Clear. Firm. Badass.

Did I mention that Robert C. O'Brien GETS IT??

End rant.

This book comes as highly recommended as ever, but now with a fun feminist twist!...more

What a breath of fresh air! I've read this book a zillion times when I was younger, but I'd say it's been at least a decade since the last time. SinceWhat a breath of fresh air! I've read this book a zillion times when I was younger, but I'd say it's been at least a decade since the last time. Since rereading more of my owned book is one of my goals for 2019, I decided it was high time to step into this one again. And it held up admirably! I'm going to continue considering this one of my favorite books.

It's been three years since Shahrazad began telling the her sister (and thus the Sultan) stories each night, spinning out the narratives over several nights so that the Sultan allows Shahrazad to live another night. Previously, he's been taking a new wife each night, and executing her in the morning, as an extreme overreaction to a betrayal from his first wife. Shahrazad is considered a hero by the people, because through her cunning she was able to stop the killings...at least for now. Marjan is a 14 year old girl who is orphaned, has a maimed foot, and lives as a sort-of-servant with an older couple that she considers her aunt and uncle. Marjan loves stories, and wants to someday be as good at spinning tales as her hero Shahrazad. When Marjan accompanies her aunt to the palace to sell some goods, she tells a story to some palace children. She's overheard by Shahrazad's sister, who takes Marjan to meet Shahrazad and tell her the story. Turns out, Shahrazad is desperate to find new stories to tell the Sultan, to stretch her reprieve for that much longer. The story that Marjan gives her sparks a whole series of intense events, and that's the main plot for this book.

Even though this is set in ancient Persia where the women wear long veils over their hair and men have multiple wives....it's still a strongly feminist book. The cast of characters is female heavy, with Marjan, Shahrazad, her sister Dunyazad, an old pigeon keeper named Zaynab, Auntie Chava...and the Sultan's powerful suspicious mother, the Khatun. The Khatun is really the main villain in the story, even though the Sultan seems like he should be. So, big cast of well-developed female characters, both good and bad. The women are clever and brave, despite living in a patriarchal society. The women in this book reflect the women that Shahrazad includes in her stories to the Sultan: "I have told him tales of good women and bad women, strong women and weak women, shy women and bold women, clever women and stupid women, honest women and women who betray....I'm hoping that he'll look at women as he does at men--that you must judge each of us on her own merits, and not condemn or exalt us only because we belong to a particular sex."

Now, I feel that an elephant in the room is the more recent and very popular teen book that also retold the tale of Shahrazad's 1001 nights of spinning stories: The Wrath and the Dawn. I feel sad for readers who read that book and thought they were getting a good version of the original tale. When held up next to this one...there's just no comparison. This one accomplishes SO MUCH in 219 pages, while the other falls so short despite taking 404 pages to do so. This one handled the relationship between Shahrazad and the Sultan so much better, though most of it is "off screen". This one actually gives a plausible explanation for their eventual love, even though Marjan (and the reader) might still hold an understandable grudge. It wasn't like in TWaTD where the Sultan was like, "Well, you're hot, so you can stop telling stories now" after only three nights. There was no peril in that book, while this book is fraught with danger the whole time.

But enough of that....I could compare the two for ages, but I'll stop. Just know to skip that atrocity, and pick up this gem of a book is you want a good retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights. I WOULD like to hear from someone who is from Iran or a nearby country to say whether or not this is a good representation of the culture (albeit an ancient version). It FEELS like a good portrayal, with details here and there that let you know the author at least did more research beyond watching Disney's "Aladdin"....but I'm obviously not an expert.

A retelling of Sleeping Beauty that incorporates time travel, history, languages, Ukrainian/Russian folklore, and all kinds of other fun stuff. I've rA retelling of Sleeping Beauty that incorporates time travel, history, languages, Ukrainian/Russian folklore, and all kinds of other fun stuff. I've read this book many times, but this was the first time in a while (at least since joining Goodreads). ...more

Pretty good for a classic. I always like a sneaky heist story. The twists were probably mindblowing when this was written, though as a veteran heist rPretty good for a classic. I always like a sneaky heist story. The twists were probably mindblowing when this was written, though as a veteran heist reader I saw through all if them. Still, knowing the sneakiness doesn't really diminish the enjoyment, because then it's like you're "in" on it.......more

As much as I love this trilogy as a whole, this one may get the award for the Most Disappointing Finale. I absolutely LOVE books 1 & 2, but this tAs much as I love this trilogy as a whole, this one may get the award for the Most Disappointing Finale. I absolutely LOVE books 1 & 2, but this third books always feel slow, disorganized, and bogged down by too much theology. I mean, I'm an atheist too, Phillip, but even I found the whole premise for the third book to be heavy handed. This would gave been so much smoother without the direct war on the Authority/God stuff. This trilogy is at its best when it's about a girl on an adventure quest, and it's worst when it's about angels. Also, worst villain name ever: Metatron. Come on. ...more

Not sure how many times I've read this book, but this was the first time on audio for me. After I got used to the full cast of narators, I thoroughlyNot sure how many times I've read this book, but this was the first time on audio for me. After I got used to the full cast of narators, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course I did....it's The Golden Compass, one if my favorite books of all time!...more

The first book in this duology was an imperfect but fun adventure. Tess does plenty of badass things, including sneakingSometimes sequels just...suck.

The first book in this duology was an imperfect but fun adventure. Tess does plenty of badass things, including sneaking around a castle in a way that deeply pleases my hide-and-seek-player self. Large portions of it were totally the kind of stealthy assassin fantasy that I have recurring dreams about, so it fulfilled at lot requirements for me to be delighted with the whole premise despite it's flaws.

In this book....it started out on the wrong foot for me immediately. It begins with Tess on a ship with her kind-of-sister, Queen C0ntessa, and the queen's new husband Alex, for a honeymoon voyage. The couple don't get along, since it's an arranged marriage, and at one point Contessa throws a temper tantrum and does something rash, which causes Alex to retaliate poorly as well, nearly killing Contessa. After the chaos dies down, Tess orders Contessa to apologize to Alex, saying, "You will tell him that you're a fool, that what you did deserves a flogging, and you will give him the strap to do it." Tess says that Alex won't really beat Contessa if she's truly contrite, and Contessa asks what if he does hit her? Tess: "Then he didn't hear the sincerity in your voice, and you deserved it." I know Tess is just being firm with Contessa because the new queen is a bit of an airhead and has no sense of court politics....but still. Not really a fan of saying "you deserve it" when discussing domestic violence (even in a historical fantasy setting), especially since Contessa almost died already for her actions.

So, that scene left a bad taste in my mouth right out of the gate. Then, when some plot starts to get some action, they're captured by pirates ("Captured by pirates is good!")...and unfortunately Tess then spends about the next 100 pages tied up, threatened with rape and/or death, tossed in a pit, and otherwise imprisoned. It's basically 100 pages of Tess being defeated and kind of useless. Ugh. When THAT part of the plot is over, she spends about the next 100 pages battling her newly-enhanced magical powers that threaten to overwhelm her. Then the last part of the book is her battling her emotions (desire to be loved, betrayal, woe, etc). There were some action bits, but the whole thing felt more like an angst-fest. The attraction-triangle from the first book was still there, though much more focused to one side in this book, but it just made Tess more aggravating as she moaned about whether or not so-and-so loved her or was just using her.

And in the end, there were no sneaky machinations or poisoned-dart shootings that made the first book so fun. This whole book is just a big let-down after the entertaining adventure of the first book. It was mostly boring, really should have been whittled down by at least a hundred pages, and I pretty much skimmed the last hundred pages or so.

Disappointingly, while the first book held up for me with the reread, this one did not. I'm still going to keep it, since I have having incomplete series on my bookshelves, but I'll always feel a bit frustrated with this one....more

2019 reread: Ok...so yeah, this book is still great fun. Why isn't it better known? I know why....it was published ten years too early. It was about a2019 reread: Ok...so yeah, this book is still great fun. Why isn't it better known? I know why....it was published ten years too early. It was about a decade or so too late for the Robin McKinley/Tamora Pierce era of badass knight ladies, and about a decade too early for the current round of badass assassin ladies. It was published, unfortunately, just before the current explosion of YA fantasy, which I'm going to call the post-Hunger Games era. The only thing really stopping this book from fitting in today is the unfortunate marketing. (Actually, a book with a nearly identical premise and title WAS published in 2011, and got a lot more attention, so there ya go.) The cover doesn't excite people, and the title is too silly sounding in this new era where we want queens, not princesses! If this was re-issued with a new vague-looking cover that was like midnight blue with scrolling silver filigree all over it, that would help. It also needs a new title. All the books these days have titles that are like, "The Something of Something and Something". I thought of this partway through reading this time, and left myself a note here: this book needs to be renamed "A Game of Daggers & Darts". People would see that, with a new cover, in their Goodreads feed and would immediately add it to their "cover appreciation" and "must read now" tags. A Game of Daggers & Darts? Sounds awesome!

It's all here: Contessa is a commoner is raised on a remote island with a bunch of nuns. She's beautiful enough to inspire sculptures, but falls in love with another commoner, and thinks her life is settled....but then a well-dressed man arrives one day and tells her that she's actually the crown princess, heir to the throne, and she's been raised in seclusion and secrecy for her own protection against assassins! He's here to take her back to her birthright, the castle, and her royal parents..........BUT WAIT, before your eyes glaze over! *rewinding sound* This girl isn't actually our protagonist!

Instead, we have Tess. She's the princess, doted on by the king and queen, raised in privilege, expecting to wed a foreign prince to seal alliances. Until shit (or chu, as they call it in the book) hits the fan and she finds out that she's NOT the princess, but it actually some beggar's child, bought as a baby to be a decoy for the real princess, who was secreted away to be raised by nuns (see above). She's been taught by the king's chancellor to protect herself against assassins who want to kill the princess because of a prophecy, but she's not actually royalty, just a pawn. However, just as she finds this out, chu goes south really fast and she has to flee the city before a pretender to the throne kills her or the captain of his guard hunts her down. Armed with the poisoned darts that the chancellor taught her to use, her hide-and-seek skills, and, uh, her ability to do math, she vows to return for her revenge....Along the way she befriends a charming thief cheat, gets pursued by a man in black, and becomes really really filthy.

*waves emphatically* Right?? Right?? Doesn't that sound awesome?

Well, I stand by my earlier appreciation for this book. It's so much fun. Is it flawless? Nope. There are a few areas that I think could have been tightened up, hence four instead of five stars. Tropes? Eh, yeah. I mean, she's basically a badass, which has become a trope for sure, BUT SHE STARTED IT. Ok, no she didn't, but she's badass in her own flawed snarky way, dammit. Is there a love triangle? Eh, it's more like a barely acknowledged attraction-triangle. There definitely isn't any insta-love, thank god. Yeah, she notices attractive dudes, but there isn't any of that nonsense of "Oh my god, he's so arrogant and mean to me and I hate him, but his abs are so gorgeous that I'm going to fall in love with him anyway because he's Broken Inside...." I hate that. Those are really the only major tropes that this book kiiiiind of gets into, but I'm cool with it because the rest of it is so entertaining.

The writing is fine. Nothing overly amazing, but at least it doesn't suck. A few too many mentions of Tess' messy topknot and every man's facial hair, but....There's no first-person/present-tense or purple prose. The world-building is there just enough to let you know that there is a bigger picture to this place, but it doesn't bog down the plot with info-dumping.

Argh, again, this book SHOULD be much-enjoyed by the current crowd of YA fantasy lovers, but it suffers from being published too early and not in a package that appeals among all of the shiny books of today. Maybe we'll get lucky and someday they'll republish it in a new edition, but for now there's only lame mass-market paperback copies available IF you can find them. Get yourself a copy of A Game of Daggers & Darts because it's too entertaining to pass up!

My old "review" is still true:

2016 thoughts: A fun fluffy adventure story that I read a bunch of times in college. It can be a bit tropey at times, but I loved it all the same. It's exactly the kind of book I would have written for myself as a teen: a badass princess who spends a fair amount of time sneaking around dark castles and climbing through trees. I'm scared to reread it in my thirties, because I worry that my slightly matured brain won't be as satisfied by this book, especially now that we've seen so many other books with similar plot lines....but we'll see....more

It's funny how you can read a book many times, but somehow only remember parts of it. It's been years since I've reread "Lirael", but I'm still surpriIt's funny how you can read a book many times, but somehow only remember parts of it. It's been years since I've reread "Lirael", but I'm still surprised that I essentially forgot the entire second half of this book. When I think of the story, I basically think of Lirael, in the library, with the Disreputable Dog. Totally forgot about Sameth and the river and the rest. Wow.

Rereading this time on audio, with Tim Curry narrating. He does OK, though all of his female-voices (including the Dog) sound the same....more